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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Rainbow Honey XOXO over Sally Hansen Satin

My last post was a preview post of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk Collection for Valentine's Day. If you click through, you can see pictures of the adorable packaging for XOXO and Sweet Talk, and you can see pictures of swatches on my nail wheel of each of the polishes by themselves and in combination with other polishes and with a matte top coat, and you can see a picture of the third polish in the collection, Be Mine, that I don't have right now. My past few posts before that have been reviews of Rainbow Honey polishes, too, from the Yokai Collection for Halloween.

XOXO is a gorgeous glitter top coat. It has red glitters in medium and small sizes. Sometimes they came together to form a heart-like shape here and there on my nails. There is also a gold shimmer or gold microflakes like tiny little pieces of gold leaf, and there is holo glitter in the polish. The holo glitter is what I call the "pastel" holo glitter. I've seen holo glitters that flash in pastel colors and holo glitters that flash in brighter primary colors. The holo glitter in XOXO flashes appropriately in pastel shades. The base of the polish is clear and not too thick but just right so that it goes on smooth and shiny, although even with one coat of Seche Vite and another of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, it's still not perfectly smooth, but it's very smooth without any jagged edges to the glitter. It's not top-coat hungry, it's just that top coat doesn't sit perfectly smooth over the glitter, similar to but much less pronounced than the effect of top coat over flakies. The red glitter flashes a gorgeous purple at times. I used two very thin coats. I tried to be subtle for work and used only one thin coat at first. One coat provided enough coverage, but then I wanted more glitter! There was no shrinkage from either top coat; I love that about Rainbow Honey polishes.

In addition to being perfect for Valentine's Day, I think XOXO would also work nicely during the Christmas holidays, and I wonder what it would like over other colors like maybe a medium blue polish.

Here are some pictures of my XOXO mani:

SunlightSeldom seen right handYou can see some of the gold micro flakies and how the red glitter flashes purple at times.You can also see the holo glitters flashing in pastel shades.Please excuse the cuticles; I had moisturized and was about to walk out of my house when I spotted a doggie peepee accident, and my OCD wouldn't let me not clean it up right away, and scrubbing tile and tile grout with cleaners is rough on my right hand, and I was running late and couldn't stop to moisturize again.

Left handEven in very low light conditions, this polish magically sparkles.Didn't use this hand to scrub after the doggie accident, but I did wash both hands and with that washed a lot of my prior moisturizing efforts away.

Seldom seen right handIndirect SunlightSparkly even in low lightThis picture comes closest to showing the true color of the pink "underwear" polish; the sunlight washed it out in other pictures.

IndoorsSeldom seen right handCamera was too dazzled by this polish indoors to take a better picture

I used Sally Hansen's Satin as "underwear" for XOXO. Satin is a very pale pink with a peachy tone from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line. I had wanted those pastel polishes ever since last Easter, and around Christmas they went on clearance at CVS, and I bought the pastel pink, orange, green, blue and purple polishes. Now I'm all set for Easter this year! I used two coats of Satin, and I still had visible nail line, but it looks nice. I had heard other bloggers complain about the formula in the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line pastel colors, saying that the formula was thick or difficult to work with or dragged or left bald patches. I didn't have any of those problems. The only issue I had was a couple of small bubbles, but I had just shaken the bottle before applying the polish, and you couldn't see the bubbles after I applied the XOXO top coat. I thought the formula was good, not too thin or thick, and it didn't pool or flood my cuticles, and I barely had any need for cleanup. There is a bit of a frosty shimmer to the finish, but it's not too brushstrokey. The brush is wide and the end is curved like my cuticles, although that curved end is trimmed unevenly in places and looks like it has jagged edges, but the brush worked well with the formula, and the polish went exactly where I wanted it to go. Below are some pictures I took of Satin while I was doing my nails, so it's pre-cleanup, and it's very poor quality indoor lighting:

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- one coat of SatinPre-cleanup, manicure in processThe pale pink polish has a bit of pearly shimmer to it.

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- one coat of Satin

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- two coats of SatinPre-cleanup, manicure in progress

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- two coats of SatinYou can see one of the small bubbles on my pointer finger, on the far right.

The Sweet Talk Collection will be sold in a private sale at fab.com from January 16, 2013 through January 19, 2013. The Collection will be officially released on January 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM EST at rainbowhoney.com and participating Retail Partners around the world. Rainbow Honey generously shared a promo code for $5.00 off a purchase on their website. PROMO CODE = SWEETTALK$5 (promo code expires 2/28/2013). Thank you Rainbow Honey for the promo code and for letting me review these lovely polishes!

I should have a review post of Sweet Talk by next weekend.

Note: I received a free bottle of XOXO polish from Rainbow Honey and was asked for my honest and unpaid review of XOXO. I am not affiliated in any other way with Rainbow Honey other than as a regular customer because I do buy, love and use their products.

The right hand had the bubble in the picture, and I wanted to show the bubble. :-)

I haven't gone for pale nail polish shades in quite a while, but towards the end of December and beginning of January, I've liked pale shades. I'm glad you liked the combination. I would have preferred a more pronounced pink creme polish, but I don't own one because I would normally not wear a pink creme polish on its own . . . but now I see a good reason to own polishes I wouldn't normally wear on their own.

Thank you! I wanted something that would show all the colors in XOXO but stay in the background without taking away from XOXO's glory. :-) Still, I would have preferred a nicer pink like in your review, except I don't own one!

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I am a happily married part-time stay-at-home doggie mom and part-time litigation attorney.
This blog will be like a journal where I keep track of my manicures and nail polish purchases.
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